In September, INMA awarded 30 young professionals around the world with its fifth “30 Under 30” award as part of its Young Professionals Initiative. This is the 14th in a series of 30 features about the impressive rising media stars who are shaping our industry.

Kathleen Farmilo was studying at the University of Oxford when she landed an internship at London-based New Statesman and found herself following the high-stakes post-Brexit negotiations.

Less than two years later, as she completed her master’s degree at City, University of London, she found herself reporting on the unfolding global pandemic. Those high-profile events kick-started a career that now sees her working as a social media producer for SBS News, where she transforms news articles on the Web site into engaging posts that appeal to digital natives.

“Keeping young people engaged in the news is essential,” Kathleen said. “It’s been the key motivating factor of my career so far and one of the core reasons for my interest in social media both as a source of stories and as a platform for news consumption.”

Combining her understanding of data with a keen eye for what makes a good story, Kathleen has helped grow the social media audience over the past year, and she said she has seen the audience’s interests change as it has grown.

Following the data, she developed new guidelines: “We identified the specific news events our audiences were most interested in, and thus areas of editorial opportunity,” she said.

One finding is that audiences were engaging with global hard news events with an Australian connection. Understanding that has allowed her to develop stories that will appeal to the SBS News audience while upholding its editorial standards of impartiality and balance.

“It also means I look for editorial opportunities other newsrooms may be missing, pitching stories to the team with our social audience in mind,” she said.

One example is the social coverage of the war in Gaza, which Kathleen said the audience “has been incredibly engaged in.” Coverage has ranged from domestic policy related to the war to sharing interviews with Australian medical professionals who volunteered in Gaza, and she said these important news stories have seen consistent audience engagement.

Her approach has earned high praise from Cathryn Boyes, SBS News social lead, who said Kathleen has helped “build a culture of happy chaos in the best way possible.” Although hired to cover social media output, Kathleen quickly began pitching interesting angles on “otherwise tired stories,” Boyes noted.

“She is always finding new ways to make her day job more interesting and introduced the ‘chaos sells’ — evolving into ‘chaos takes’ — [which have been] crucial elements to our success with young people on social media.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .